Music video auteur

Francis Lawrence

Partial list of directed songs; “Gone Till November”, Wyclef Jean (1997); “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing”, Aerosmith (1998); “Fortunate”, Maxwell (1999); “Girl’s Best Friend”, Jay-Z (1999); “I’m A Slave 4 U”, Britney Spears (2001); “Cry Me A River”, Justin Timberlake feat. Timbaland (2003); “Bad Romance”, Lady Gaga (2009)
 (source; http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2011/08/the-15-most-accomplished-music-video-directors/francis-lawrence)

Similar camera angles in his music videos; medium shots with a focus on facial expression.

His RnB style music has futuristic noir elements to them, as shown in Cry Me a River & Pump It.

There's also an emphasis on effortless "flow." A trademark of his appears to be that the artists have to appear stationary some of the time, but any movement is incredibly smooth.

The characters are usually presented in a melodramatic on a large scale way. Sweeping opening scenes and quick editing between distances that aren't too far apart, make the videos appear more like a film.

To surmise; his signature styles appear to be a mix and match set of close-ups and art direction, with editing to fit the different genres. One size fits all with heavy adaptation.

Extra filming date

There are a couple of changes we need to make to the music video, with a couple of blanks to fill in. 

Out of lyrics to re-do;

"Pharrel say don't do it the same."

"Are ya happy girl?"

"Tellin' me to have a nice life."

"You're on your own."

"Imma do for me is right."

"Maybe I should take another glance."

"But for you my goal still remains."

-Multiple chorus shots

-Louder lip-syncing for editing purposes

-More movement

On the 2nd of November, we will go to our previous locations, and adapt what we film into our new version of the video.

Filming notes

Throughout the day we had some good ideas for filming around Cambridge (we forgot  the shot-list but it still flowed well.) We started out near Cafe Nero in town centre;

-Verse shots with Cambridge alleyways

 +stationary and tracking shots

  +high angle camera style shots as an edit backup

-Verse & chorus shots on a connecting alley to accentuate happy feelings and a "poppy" atmosphere

 +good backdrop of terraced houses with one directional light for added effect

We then headed towards the Grand Arcade roof in order to film a sweeping background for the video

-grayscale buildings didn't help

+most of the buildings did, clear sunlight to help with the first half's daylight theme

(No roof pictures available)

Unfortunately the camera wasn't at max battery so we had to stop off at HMV in order to charge it.

Afterwards, Christ's Piece seemed like a good location in order to do a skit involving a cigar for the video, and the singer kicking leaves for dramatic effect.

+very successful multiple camera angles for the money/cigar skit 

 +autumnal worked better than raining for the latter half

Castle Hill nighttime shooting

+dribbly with slight advantage, gave enough of a rainy effect to be used in tandem with the songs themes

+umbrella usage for the video 

+tracking shots with backings of the hill

+nice sunset used as planned for the closing shots of the video

Peter's bedroom shots
+self filming that worked out with tripod usage
+shot of him getting up with multiple shots of day to day waking up scenarios to use for later editing

In summary;
-slightly stiff filming, but, +with multiple angles and locations
+over 100 clips
-over 100 clips
+every latter clip in a scene is usually the better clip, easy enough to sort through
+filming was on time with good coordination 

Influences

Potential influences for the music video

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2-1jyxn2uY

One influence for our style of music video is the David Beckham Sky advert. In the same way that he wakes up in a perfect attitude and goes about his day, so will our character. The 21st centuries model class is very easy to screw up in the wrong hands, however, it is very appealing when done correctly.

Much like the cigar adverts of old, modern cigar connotations are a stricter "club" of appreciation. Through this we mean that heavy sexualization can go hand in hand with certain human habits. These are accentuated through our music video in as much as we can achieve. Our character will have a cigar in his mouth because he has to fit a star persona.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsUsVbTj2AY

JT blows smoke through the air, standing as if sitting, next to Jay Z who is sitting as if standing.

They are comfortable with what's going on, and with a simple filter, the scene is given the vintage feeling they are trying to market.

Frank Sinatra years earlier, in a similar relaxed pose with a microphone, JT would have had to copy marketing techniques from musicians of that era.

In "Suit and Tie" and with a lot of older musicians, specifically those in blues, swing, RnB and the like, there is a heavy emphasis on nonchalant character.  In this way, regardless of where our character is in the scene, he will be unaware of the world around him, it revolves around him and the star persona and nothing else. 

Whereas in previous years, "R&B" style music would have focused on dance routines, then casual narrative, artists who want to present a certain version of R&B, have to present sexuality in their own way in order to make maximum profit. Vice is rife for the audience to enjoy, and therefore some aspects of the video have to try and indulge guilty pleasures for the audience. However, other than cigar and suit, a casual 90s style R&B blend will most likely be our direction, with focus on different camera angles, and the star conveying a narrative.

A 90s R&B "collage" and a contemporary R&B collage to show genre differences in the decades.                                                         

Star Persona

Justin Timberlake's materialistic side has sprouted a number of different generic star products such as colognes and watches. His life of luxury can therefore be conveyed through products aimed at the highest earners in his target audience.

In the RnB/Pop sphere, it's very important that JT keeps up appearances for all of his media lifestyle. In this way, he can sell his sexuality to his primarily female audience. He does this through his acting career, sponsorships, and his music video style.
In terms of empowerment, he can take different roles depending on the specific image he's trying to convey, for example, in Friends with Benefits  he manages to appeal to the sweeter side of the market, while in sexually provocative music videos, he can sell lust and luxury in the same package.

So, in this way, he can afford to take hiatuses from either side of his person. Entrepreneur, artist, and actor, can all feed into the star persona of money and class. Much like Jay-Z, who he often works with, star persona is everything in certain areas of the media industry.

Jay-Z, who's similar affluent attributes have garnered him an almost invincible status of mainstay, is very similar to Justin Timberlake in how he conducts his business. Cigars, chains, and suits, mixed in with mixed moral messages for every stage of his career, is how their money is mostly generated, all through how they conduct their personality traits.

We'll be able to convey the most relatable aspect of the star with our 3 products. Applying every conventional star trait to our digipak and video.

Notes from the 10th October

Finished Mood Board and storyboard/shot list photographs.

Film date set as Saturday from 12:00 noon, Grafton Centre and around Cambridge.

Equipment & shot lists set for the several locations + props.

Mood Board

Storyboards + Shot lists

Lighting Research

Here is a link to a Los Angeles based blog for studio and film lighting effects.

http://www.lavideofilmmaker.com/filmmaking/film-lighting-tips.html

This website talks about different uses of lighting and examples of how there used in cinema. This site is useful as it presents a range of different lighting effects and what effect they give to the audience which means we can refer to this to help when using different lighting.


How to make a Music Video: Lighting setup



This video is good as it shows how the lighting of a scene is built up from just a basic boring room into a very professional looking video. And will be useful when using lighting to make a setting more visually interesting. Also it talks about moving the camera slightly when there's a static lip syncing part of the video which is a tip we can use in our video.


 Tips on using a reflector outside in the day:



This video is very useful as it explains good tips which we can use when filming out and about in Cambridge. They explain that the reflector should not be used to reflect the light up at the subject as that makes the scene look unnatural. This tutorial was good however it requires the sun and many of the shots we'll be film will be in the shade.

Call Sheet

The Rather large and Expensive Company

Call sheet 1

Justin Timberlake – Last Night

Date	Time	Who’s Picking up Equipment	Who’s Putting Back Equipment
12/10/13		Peter	Peter

Props – Cigar, IPod Headphones, Toast (optional Peanut butter,) Umbrella

Costume – 2/3 Suits (JT colour Tie, other 2 black), 1 Pair Sunglasses, Hoodie, Homeless Clothes, 1 Set of Normal Clothes

Location – (If it rains we will use the rain for effect), Peter’s Bedroom, Outside The Grafton, New Square, East Road, Emmanuel Street

Music Video Various Idea's

Craig David - Can you feel me : Nice spacey opening that could contribute to an establishing shot, then a smooth intro that starts to beatmatch or glitch then location change to his vocals, possible. (Very conventional.)

Fergie - London Bridge : Modern, easy beatmatch, urban environment to lipsyncing and social interaction. Easy on budget.

Jay Z - The Blueprint : Simple to lipsync and present in a professional manner, beat editing might be messed up by the backing violin that decreases engagement for the video. Possibly classy.

JLS - Very poppy, easy parody material, conventional boy band music video.

Justin Timberlake - Last night : Old style with modern, Timberlake and Jay-Z both fit the modern niche market of "class" so could be utilised to create a simple showroom style video.

Laura Muala - Sing to the moon : Alternate mood, indie style ambient that could be focused on environment and a singular girl/nature. Focus on nightime.

Little Mix - Pretend it's OK : Similar to the alternate theme of the previous song, however with a much larger pop style, aka, generic girl band that has a potential for a decent music video (good marketing ability because it could be made to look very much like a real music video.

The Saturdays - Ladykiller : Man in an animal onesie is a "ladykiller" and has to find himself and nail the main girl by the end of the music video with a cheeky wink. Could go fantastically, could absolutely not. Likeable idea.

Group7mediapros@gmail.com

Group7mediapros@gmail.com

Victor Kolbe, Michael Broadbent, Peter Harris, Ben Crisp.